F1 Fantasy 2026: The Complete Beginner’s Guide

Constructors earn points for qualifying as well. They break down as follows:

Race Points

Drivers earn points in F1 Fantasy in 2026 just like they do in the F1 race. First place earns 25 points, second earns 18th, and so on to 10th place earning a single point. Drivers who finish 11th to 22nd earn no points. Drivers who DNF, are disqualified, or do not classify lose 20 points for their team, regardless of reason.

Constructors earn the total of the results of their drivers. For example, if their drivers finish first and second, they earn 43 points. This total does not include the Driver of the Day bonus or any bonuses earned from chip use. Those apply only to the driver.

Bonus Points

Both drivers and constructors can earn bonuses in F1 Fantasy in 2026 in the following ways. For Drivers, they can earn bonuses as follows:

Constructors earn points as well based largely on pitstop times. Here’s the full breakdown:

Teams also lose 20 points for each driver who is disqualified.

Sprint Weekend Scoring

For the Sprint Weekends, drivers earn points exactly as they do in the race weekends. Eight points go to the winner, with seven to second, and so on, with one point to the driver finishing eighth. Drivers disqualified or who do not finish the sprint lose ten points. Constructors also lose ten points per driver who is disqualified in a sprint.

Drivers also earn one point per position gained in a sprint, lose one point for each position lost in a sprint, and gain one point for each overtake made, with the same rules applying as during the race for what counts as an overtake. Recording the fastest lap in a sprint also earns five points for that driver.

Beginner tip: Mark the Sprint weekends in your calendars from now, and really focus on your constructors’ strategy. Double the events means double the points your teams can score. Conversely, a bad weekend can have disasterous results that impact the rest of your season.

Building Your Team: The $$100M Budget

The key to winning F1 Fantasy is to optimize your team selection to provide the most value within the $100M cap. Both drivers and constructors come in anywhere between six million on the low end and $30M at the upper end. Here’s how to allocate most effectively.

The Budget Allocation Framework for 2026 F1 Fantasy

Everyone has a different strategy as to how to optimize their strategy, but for the 2026 F1 Fantasy season, you need to be strategic about picking high-upside drivers and constructors. With the top-end drivers and teams coming in around $30M, you really can select just one of those. The reality is that finding undervalued drivers on midfield and strong teams are more valuable long-term, typically, than elite single contributors.

Here’s the rough math. You have an average of $$14.3M per slot. Every dollar you spend above that on a slot leaves you a dollar less to spend on every other spot. This makes going for top teams and drivers even more costly, with them often coming in at over double the average spot spend ($30M vs $14.3M).

Given the choice between spending on a team on a driver, you should spend on a team every single time. Here’s why: A top driver who wins a race typically performs well in qualifying and has a very high chance of winning the fastest lap. That could give them upwards of 50 points if you count positions gained, overtakes and more. That’s a massive upside.

While teams earn the sum of their two drivers’ performance, that matters for teams that have two elite drivers, but for teams that have one driver stronger than the other, taking the stronger driver will provide more overall value.

Why 2026 Makes Team Building Different

The other challenge is that the 2026 car regulations have thrown prediction models completely for a loop. The 2025 car performance is not indicative of how they will do in 2026. Early testing has provided some insights from Bahrain and Barcelona, but the reality is that we won’t have any real data until a good chunk of the season is done. You need to take a gamble here as to which teams will figure it out fastest and which drivers will be able to pull through regardless of the changes.

Do you prioritize older drivers with more experience driving, or do you feel that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks and go for the younger drivers because they may be more adaptable? Do you prioritize constructors that built their own engines versus customer teams because they have more control? These are the choices that will dictate success or failure this season.

Beginner tip: Don’t focus only on big name drivers. You want to make sure you spread the wealth effectively to score points from across the lineup. Be like McLaren, have two great drivers, not like Red Bull, with just one excellent driver.

F1 Fantasy Transfers Explained

Of course, the team you start with shouldn’t necessarily be the team you finish with at the end of the Formula one season in 2026. You are allowed, and actively encouraged, to make changes to your team over the season. Here’s how it works:

Free Transfers

You can make as many tweaks to your lineup until the first race weekend, but after that, you can only make two transfers per week.

Banking Transfers

You can bank one of your two transfers per week, and hold up to a maximum of three transfers. This allows you to make significant changes to your team at once.

Paid Transfers

Any transfers you need to make above the transfers you have cost 10 points. That’s a massive cost for a transfer- use sparingly.

Transfer Strategy for Beginners

The game rewards steady changes throughout, allowing you to change a larger portion of your team each week than most other fantasy sports do. Keeping under the cost cap and managing valuation changes makes it more interesting. The key is to not make panic moves- be steady in how you play, but make moves decisively.

F1 Fantasy Chips: Your Secret Weapons in 2026

The wild card in F1 Fantasy in 2026 is Chips. Like car upgrades that teams introduce throughout the season, F1 Fantasy has six chips that you can use, but you can only use each one once. You can also only use one chip per race weekend. Three are available for the first race of the season, with the latter three available after the first race weekend. Here’s how they all work:

Wild card

Wild card allows you to make unlimited transfers to your F1 Fantasy team for free. Essentially, it allows you to rebuild your entire team in one race weekend. For 2026, this is going to be more effective than in previous years, with the new regulations impacting the usual pecking order. The best time to use this will likely be after the first four or five race weekends, but if you picked well, you can potentially hold onto this even longer.

No Negative

Just like with Fantasy Football, F1 Fantasy drivers can score negative points. The No Negative chip removes the possibility of you scoring negative points at all. This is really effective for high-risk race weekends, especially street circuits and wet races, where the risks of a DNF are highest.

3X Boost

3X boost allows you to earn triple the points from a driver’s performance in a race weekend. You are not able to stack this on a driver with the 2x bonus that weekend, unfortunately, but it does allow you to give a points bonus to two drivers instead of one. This is best used when you have faith in more than one racer.

Autopilot

Autopilot allows you to change the 2x boost and apply it to the highest-scoring driver. Say you have Lance Stroll and Max Verstappen, and you give your 2x boost to Stroll; this chip allows you to allocate it to Verstappen.

Limitless

The most powerful chip in 2026 F1 Fantasy, Limitless allows you not only to get unlimited transfers, but also allows you to have no cost cap for a race. Effectively, you can pick the top drivers and constructors, put them all in your lineup, and run up the scoresheet. Now, you have no carry-forward moves for the following week, regardless of the number of moves you make, and will need to set a legal lineup the following race weekend. Use this one carefully.

Final Fix

This bonus allows you to make a single change between the end of Qualifying and the start of the Race without any penalties. You have to make a switch to a driver and cannot change the 2x bonus alone. If you change the driver with the 2x bonus, that driver will earn that bonus for the next segment. In a weekend where there is a Sprint and a Race, it applies to both. This is valuable if a driver isn’t able to participate in the race after qualifying.

Chip timing tip: Don’t rush to change your lineup too early in the season. With the changes to the cars and driving in 2026, it will take most teams time to figure out the regulations. Trust the process with your F1 Fantasy team in 2026.

2026-Specific Tips for New F1 Fantasy Players in 2026

If you’re new to F1 Fantasy, this can seem a little intimidating. There is a lot to understand and get used to, but the app and F1 Wesbite make it really easy to play. Just to help you a little more, we have some tips to make your season a little easier.

Driver reliability is key in F1 Fantasy

The biggest penalty you can incur is failing to finish a race. Not only is it punishing on its own with a -20 score, it also impacts the Constructors’ score. That’s a massive downside risk you want to avoid where possible. Where you can, try to select drivers that are reliable in finishing races, even if they earn zero points, over those who take a -20 point drop.

The real fantasy value is in the midfield

Everyone is going to look to the top of the lineup to score most of their points, but excelling in the midfield takes a fantasy player from good to great. Use your midfield driver spots carefully, optimizing for those that consistently score points and finish in Q3. You won’t win massively with these drivers, but the points that they earn can put you in The Win Column.

Stay tuned in before and during the F1 race weekend

I cannot stress this enough: Stay tuned-in about the race weekend. There are so many factors that impact the way the race is operating, from the more tangible factors like weather and timing, to the vibes around drivers that weekend. The more attention you pay, the more you can pick up on, especially regarding your 2x bonus. Keep a sharp eye on the race before it happens to know exactly how to use your bonuses.

Don’t undervalue Constructors

Some treat their constructors’ picks as static and stick with them throughout the season. This is a mistake. Use your constructors’ spots judiciously, and change them based on the strength of the team at the race. Some teams excel in certain race formats, while others struggle in certain conditions. With the 2026 changes, this will be different this season, but after a few races, you will get a good handle of who is strong where. Use your constructors’ spots accordingly.

Keep reading, keep tweaking

F1 Fantasy is not a set-and-forget fantasy league in 2026. You need to keep reading, keep watching, and keep tweaking if you want to be successful. This is a major year for F1, and F1 Fantasy will move accordingly.

Ready to Build Your F1 Fantasy Team for 2026?

The first race is just over a week away, and now is the time to start building your 2026 F1 Fantasy team. Keep your eyes on our page– we’ll have updated fantasy advice, top picks of the week and more all season long.